Etymograph

English

calcify

Calcify comes from French calcifier ‘to calcify’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-1‘to do’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalcium2
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalcifier1‘to calcify’
  4. Englishtodaycalcify1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English calcify
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French calcifier

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-Wiktionary, English calcify‘to do’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalciumWiktionary, French calcifier
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentcalcifierWiktionary, English calcify‘to calcify’
  4. EnglishtodaycalcifyWiktionary, English calcify

Formed from calcium + -ify

Latin calx ‘lime, limestone’

English calcium

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’

do, fact, hot, deal, fair, defense, fan, benefit, fashion, feature, mid, theme, defence, custom, ethnic, treasury, treasure, sufficient, thesis, aesthetic, defendant, feast, synthetic, theology, doom, tick, deed, dis, ethical, atheist, ethic, auditorium, auditor, atheism, demi, deem, spade, thematic, ethos, forfeit, 128 more

Today it means

verb To make or become hard and stony by impregnating with calcium salts.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “calcify”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for French calcifier. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- / calcify

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